Ipsen and Marengo Therapeutics Expand Oncology Collaboration with $1.2 Billion Deal to Advance TriSTAR T Cell Engagers

On June 7, Ipsen announced the expansion of its ongoing oncology research partnership with Marengo Therapeutics.

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(Announcement Screenshot)

This expanded collaboration will leverage Marengo’s TriSTAR platform to broaden ongoing oncology research and add two additional assets in a new early-stage development collaboration.

According to the agreement, Ipsen will be responsible for all activities following the nomination of the candidate asset. Marengo Therapeutics will receive an upfront payment, subsequent milestone payments totaling up to 1.2 billion US dollars, and additional tiered sales royalties.

The first strategic cooperation between the two parties was in August 2022, when Ipsen obtained the clinical development rights for Marengo's two preclinical candidate drugs, STAR002 and STAR003, for a total exceeding $1.6 billion. This collaboration will leverage Marengo's proprietary R&D technology in novel mechanisms of T-cell activation and Ipsen’s global oncology hub for clinical development and commercialization.

David Jenkins, Senior Vice President of Research and External Innovation at Ipsen, stated: "We are delighted to continue our close collaboration with the Marengo team, who share our passion and drive for accelerating cancer innovation. Through Marengo's next-generation TriSTAR platform, we have the potential to unlock the power of the immune system and activate a broader pool of T-cells to eradicate tumors that traditionally respond poorly to T-cell immunotherapy."

Marengo CEO Zhen Su stated, "We are thrilled to further our existing research collaboration with Ipsen, who successfully delivered the first candidate drug earlier this year. This new partnership with Ipsen builds on our clinically validated TCRVβ platform and our internal research on novel TriSTART cell engagers, which have best-in-class potential and achieve the ultimate precision IO goal of delivering the right T cells to the right tumor. The TriSTAR platform significantly expands our portfolio to target hard-to-treat 'cold' tumors, and we are excited to collaborate with the Ipsen Oncology team to achieve this goal."

Marengo's TriSTAR Platform is a multispecific antibody fusion platform derived from Marengo's proprietary antibody library, targeting the germline-encoded variable Vβ regions of the TCR, fused to T-cell co-stimulatory fragments and tumor-associated antigen binders. By expanding and redirecting a new pool of highly activated memory Vβ T cells, TriSTARtce has the potential to overcome the impact of poor T-cell quality and T-cell exhaustion that may limit the activity of conventional TCEs.

Based on its unique technology platform, Marengo's STAR0602 has been the first to enter the clinical pipeline. STAR0602 is a first-in-class bispecific antibody fusion molecule that can bind to and activate specific Vβ T-cell subsets while delivering co-stimulatory signals to the same T cell (referred to as cis-targeting), thereby selectively expanding this T-cell subset. The product has demonstrated single-dose efficacy in treating PD-1 refractory tumors in preclinical studies.

Marengo Therapeutics' R&D Pipeline

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(Official website screenshot)

Ipsen, which has long been deeply involved in the fields of oncology, rare diseases, and neuroscience, has actively expanded its oncology pipeline in recent years. This includes successively entering into strategic collaborations with BAKX and Accent to jointly develop oncology drug candidates, as well as acquiring Epizyme for $247 million in 2022 to further expand its product portfolio in the field of oncology.

In April this year, Ipsen also acquired a preclinical ROR1 ADC candidate drug for $900 million, entering the ADC field.

Ipsen's Pipeline Layout in the Oncology Field

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(Source: Asymchem Laboratories)

Editor: Bai Ji

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